Sunday, July 12, 2009

Have you been having too much fun this summer to sit in front of a computer and post to your blog? ME TOO! But you know, even the laziest, haziest, dog-dayin'-est summer lovers among us do occasionally need to turn our attention back to our responsibilities. To that end, here is a brief recap of the summer so far on the soapbox derby.

June 11 - Skate and Create!

Dean Bieber and Zev Klymochko from Calgary Area Skateboard Enthusiasts (CASE) came by to talk about one of my favourite pastimes - skateboarding - and the day we dedicate to celebrating it every year - go skateboarding day. GSD happens every summer solstice, and it's a great excuse (if you need one) to spend a whole day on a skateboard. Here's a little video of the fuzz-heavy goings-on in our fair city this GSD:

Dean is the dude talking to the unreasonable cop at the end of the video. He also runs a skateboard company called Visionary.

This week I had the pleasure of hosting a couple of women who are involved in the Ride ON! summer series happening all this month in our fair city, and brought to us by the good people at M:ST. Keltie Duncan works for M:ST, and she came in to tell us about all of the cool stuff that's happening as part of this Ride ON! thing - the whole series focuses on bikes as works of and vehicles for art. I also met Jessica Thompson, artist-in-residence at the TRUCK Gallery and one of the artists with an installation in Ride ON! In her soundbike project, she built this awesome bike-mounted machine that emits laughter, increasingly uproariously as you go faster and faster on the bike. You can take it for a spin if you want, by borrowing it from the awesome fun-loving bikesheviks at the good life bike shop.

Jessica is hosting a workshop at the good life on July 30th, at which you can build your own "bike-rophone" - a bike-mounted PA system of sorts that allows you to make hella mad noise and raise a ruckus. The plan is to build a bunch of these things then take them to the streets the following evening on the July Critical Mass. I'm going for defs - maybe I'll see you there!

ARUSHA!

Soapbox Derby is sponsored by the awesome folks down at the ARUSHA CENTRE - a collectively run, member-supported organisation that provides resources and programming on local and global social justice issues.

We think it's a great fit, and we're truly honoured to have the support of Arusha. THANKS!

LISTEN!

We think we do a pretty swell radio show, and we'd like for you to listen to it. "The derby" airs from 9-11am MST on Thursdays - but you can listen to all kinds of outstanding programming on CJSW 90.9fm, 24/7.

Use your grampy's transistor radio if you live in southern Alberta, or tune into live streaming audio in a multitude of formats, from anywhere in the universe, right here.

WE'RE ALL EARS...

Do you need to hop up on the soap box? You can drop us a line right here. We welcome comments, requests, suggestions, and information on whatever conscious stuff you've got going on.